The general field of this invention is natural and manmade fiber composites which are used in various industrial and consumer applications.
Natural and manmade fiber composites can be used in building construction, industrial applications, consumer goods, automotive products, and other industries requiring moisture or thermal resistance with various physical properties, such as low moisture absorbance and low thermal distortion. The ability to build composites of this nature, while controlling physical properties such as strength, stiffness, ductility, impact resistance, and hardness, opens a variety of application opportunities.
Additionally, there is growing pressure to re-utilize waste streams which are high in volume and low in degradability. In particular the manufacture, installation, use and (eventually) replacement of floor covering products, especially carpeting, produces a large amount of waste product. Carpet waste from new carpet production, post-consumer landfill or other used carpet applications is a several billion pound-per-year waste problem. The industry generally uses the term “selvedge” for waste material generated during the manufacturing process while other forms of manufacturing and installation waste are sometimes termed “scrap”. We use the term carpet waste to cover all types of waste produced by the manufacture, installation, use and replacement of floor covering products. Often, carpet waste is not recycled, but rather is disposed of by land-filling or burning.